Publish vs. Release

Question

I created a simple application in VB.net in Visual Studio 2013.

It's not a website or a web app, it's just a simple Calculator, I think I created it as a Windows Forms Application.

When I build the application in release mode, it builds and runs properly.

It puts the executable it built in: Documents\\Visual Studio 2013\\Projects\\DataCalculator\\DataCalculator\\bin\\Release

I can just send that executable alone to someone and the program works fine. So what is the purpose of all the other files?

Furthermore, there is a Publish button in the Build menu of VS2013. What does publishing the program do that the the release doesn't?

Also, when I click the publish button it asks me how the user will install the application. What if I don't want them to install it, I just want it to run from a simple click of the executable. So what is the purpose of publishing?

Answer 1

If by "all the other files" you mean .application, .manifest, .pdb, etc., they all have uses in various contexts. If your calculator is stand-alone, then it will only require the .NET Framework version you used to create it installed and the .exe itself.

I have used the Publish feature a few times - at a previous company - it's useful for 'transparent updates' to users. For example, the tools I created were published to a shared drive on the server along with the associated "other files". The users then installed the tool from the shared drive by clicking on the setup/install version, which creates a shortcut on their start menu/desktop/wherever. The beauty of this particular method, is that you can configure the application to automatically update when it is run; so I continuously improved the tools and every time a user ran one, it copied the newer exe to their PC and ran that, without any further updates/reinstalls from their perspective.

It worked quite well for small engineering tools, but I'm sure with larger/more complex applications with databases and backward-compatibility to worry about, it could cause headaches in many situations.

Answer 2

Release will only create an .EXE Application file which is executable in supported platforms, but database must be separately copied . where as publish will create a setup file along with database and the sub folders inside the project folder. It helps you to install your application in any computer which meets the requirements.

Click to refer Advantages and procedure for publish http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ms233806(v=vs.100).aspx